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A new restaurant in the Naples area takes patrons on an authentic culinary trip to a far-flung area of the world.

After a delayed opening and a false start earlier this month, Moura Bistro relaunched Saturday in Meridian Marketplace on the northeastern corner of Pine Ridge and Livingston roads. Moura's Lebanese and Mediterranean cuisine adds to the tasty lineup on a leg of the center that already serves up Fernandez the Bull Cuban Cafe, Palumbo's Pizzeria and Sakura Hawaiian Grill.

'I want this to be a landmark, as I stated when I first started this. This is going to be the landmark,' said Moura Bistro owner Nabil Bassil. 'They are going to say, 'Oh, you know where Moura is? OK. It's right next to Moura'.'

Although other Lebanese restaurants are in Miami or Orlando, Bassil said his is the only Lebanese-Mediterranean restaurant in Southwest Florida or on the west coast of Florida.

'This is the only one. This is one of a kind. It doesn't look like anything else. It doesn't match anything else,' he said. 'I'm not copying anybody and nobody is copying me. Actually nobody can copy me. These recipes are Moura's recipes and Moura is my mother. These are her Lebanese recipes.'

The simple menu includes platters and sandwiches of shish kebabs, shawarma, shrimp and falafel — fried balls of mashed chickpeas and spices. Lebanese spices create a unique flavor profile, but are not usually spicy.

'In Lebanon, we share the tastes in the Mediterranean area. This is typical Lebanese-Mediterranean. This is my Mom's recipes and I'm so proud to serve it to people, and people are loving it.'

So far, Bassil said he hasn't encountered anyone who doesn't like Moura's food.

'They are going crazy about this food. People have been waiting for a year now, so we cannot disappoint people,' Bassil said. 'Everybody said it is very good or it's amazing or excellent or they all rated it as very high, and I'm very happy. I hope they are doing this from the bottom of their hearts because I don't think anybody will just compliment you if it's not really a good meal.'

Many local residents, especially those of Lebanese descent, have been anticipating Moura Bistro filling a culinary hole in this area.

'I've lived here 20 years. This is the first true Lebanese restaurant since I've been here,' said Dina Dogum-Smith, who made sure she and her husband, Tom Smith, were Moura Bistro's first customers.

'We were on a mission to be their first customers,' she said. 'We have been waiting for six months.'

After driving by the restaurant and monitoring its Facebook page for months, the Smiths were pleased with what the restaurant had to offer when it finally launched.

'It was amazing,' Dina Dogum-Smith said. 'First of all, the owner was so hospitable, I never met him before, and I honestly felt like he was family. We cannot wait to go back. I was raised on Lebanese food. I'm Lebanese-American. When I found out they were coming, I was so excited. That's the food I grew up on.'

A vegetarian, pescatarian, certified health coach and owner of New Journey Weight Loss & Wellness in Naples, Dogum-Smith said Lebanese cuisine has a lot to offer because of its use of healthier olive oil, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fresh herbs and spices instead of heavy sauces.

'That's the foundation of their cuisine,' she said. 'People are looking for fresh and wholesome and things that are made from scratch and not real processed.'

Moura Bistro takes Dogum-Smith back to her childhood in Philadelphia, where her Lebanese grandmother and mother made these healthy dishes.

'Lebanese food is so good. I think there's a huge market for it here,' she said. 'I know he's going to do very well. The food is definitely worth it.'

For lunch or dinner plates, the restaurant's shawarma has beef or chicken marinated with Lebanese spices and then slowly roasted on a rotating vertical spit. Similar to a gyro, the meat is shaved off and served in a pita as a sandwich or over rice as a dinner.

Shish kebabs feature marinated and grilled beef or lamb on skewers with vegetables such as onion and peppers. Similarly, shish kafta has seasoned ground beef, while shish tawook uses marinated and grilled chicken.

Moura's mixed grill platter makes for a good sampling because it includes one skewer each of kafta, kebab and tawook. All dinner platters at Moura also come with pita bread, rice, garlic potatoes and grilled vegetables.

In addition to more traditional spinach and green salads, options include tabbouleh, a salad of cracked wheat tossed with finely chopped vegetables such as tomatoes, onions and parsley; and fattoush, mixed greens topped with fried pieces of pita.

Prices for dinner entrée platters on opening night were $17 to $27; salads, $8 to $9; appetizers, $7 to $8.

Seating is available indoors with an open kitchen and outdoors on a side patio. The long-awaited local restaurant at 3369 Pine Ridge Road is open daily for lunch and dinner.

'Lunch is at 11 until probably 3 or 3:30,' Bassil said. 'We have to break the day because we have to switch from the lunch mode to the dinner mode, and then we will be doing the dinner starting at 5 o'clock every day.'

For information about Moura Bistro, call 239-738-8883, or go to mourabistro.com.